WASHINGTON—Southern Baptist leaders, including two current Texans, have joined in the strongest effort to date by evangelical Christians to bring about comprehensive immigration reform in the United States.

Bryant Wright, president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), and Richard Land, head of the SBC’s ethics entity, were among more than 20 Southern Baptist denominational leaders, academics and pastors who endorsed an “Evangelical Statement of Principles for Immigration Reform.” The Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT), a new coalition, released the statement signed by 150 evangelicals at a Capitol Hill news conference on June 12.

Signers also included Daniel Sanchez, missions professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and David Fleming, pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston.

In the statement, the signers call for government leaders to work with the American people for a “bipartisan solution” on the controversial issue that:

• “Respects the God-given dignity of every person;
• “Protects the unity of the immediate family;
• “Respects the rule of law;
• “Guarantees secure national borders;
• “Ensures fairness to taxpayers;
• “Establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents.”

The signers acknowledge efforts to repair what many of them describe as a broken system that has resulted in polarization and a misrepresentation of “each other’s positions as open borders and amnesty versus deportations of millions. This false choice has led to an unacceptable political stalemate at the federal level at a tragic human cost.”

While Land and other leaders of the Evangelical Immigration Table have been promoting comprehensive reform for several years, the statement marks a significant expansion of evangelical endorsers in a cooperative effort. Notably, Focus on the Family took a stance on the issue for the first time when its president, Jim Daly, signed the statement. The coalition includes evangelicals from both the left and right.

The EIT “is diverse in its formation, but it is unified in its biblically mandated vision to help create a better life for immigrants” based on its stated principles, Land said at the news conference. Land is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).

Sojourners President Jim Wallis, known for his left-leaning politics, pointed to the agreement between his organization and more conservative groups such as the SBC, Focus on the Family and the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).

“That doesn’t happen very often,” Wallis told reporters. “An effort for immigration reform of this size and this diverse has never been attempted in the evangelical community.”

It appears there will be no attempt to move immigration reform in Congress this year. The political will does not seem to exist at either the White House or Capitol to pursue action on such a controversial issue before the November election. Yet, EIT members said it is time to promote reform.

“There may not be a vote on immigration reform in the Congress before November, but there are going to be a lot of votes in November,” NAE President Leith Anderson said at the news conference.

The positions of incumbents and challengers on immigration reform could impact the election, Land pointed out. He cited a Pew Forum survey that showed 70 percent of Americans said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who backs comprehensive reform.

“That tells me that it’s time for the politicians to understand that the country has changed on this issue, and they believe it’s well past time for the government to get its act together and to pass immigration reform that is in line with these principles,” Land said. “And we as evangelicals are here to say to both parties, ‘Get with it.’

“We are absolutely convinced that the country is ahead of its elected leaders on this issue—in both parties,” he said.

The pastor of a Southern Baptist church told reporters that immigration reform is “an urgent moral issue” for pastors and churches. About 30 percent of the congregation of Champion Forest Baptist Church, on the northwest side of Houston, is Hispanic, said senior pastor David Fleming.

“In churches across America, we deal with the challenges and the failures of our current immigration policy on a regular basis,” Fleming said. “The people most affected by the current policy are not anonymous to us. We know their names and their faces, their hopes and dreams, their gifts and their skills. We recognize their inherent value and their great potential as human beings.”

Sometimes, it is impossible to help those in the church who are caught in an immigration system that does not account for changes in their circumstances, Fleming said.

The EIT’s statement does not propose precise policies, and one speaker at the news conference acknowledged, “Much, much work remains to be done on the specifics.”

Tom Minnery, a senior vice president for Focus on the Family, said, “As difficult as it was getting all these signers together, the next step—getting politicians together—is a much greater task.”

The EIT heads—which include Land, Anderson, Wallis and six others—met with White House officials and congressional members June 12 and 13. It also is sponsoring radio ads in Colorado and Florida.
The June 12 news conference capped more than a year of preparation.

In addition to Wright, Land and Fleming, the Southern Baptists signing the EIT statement included Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; former SBC President James Merritt; Durham, N.C., pastor J.D. Greear; Robin Hadaway, interim president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Russell Moore, dean of the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Steve Lemke, provost of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and Daniel Sanchez, missions professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The statement and the signers may be accessed online at evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/.

Messengers to the 2011 Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix, Ariz., approved a resolution on immigration reform that called for the advancement of the gospel of Jesus while pursuing justice and compassion. The measure urged the government to make a priority of border security and holding businesses accountable in their hiring. It also requested public officials secure the borders, and with secure borders, establish “a just and compassionate path to legal status, with appropriate restitutionary measures, for those undocumented immigrants already living in our country.” It specified the resolution was not to be interpreted as supporting amnesty.

Land has consistently called for comprehensive reform that includes a pathway to citizenship that would consist of such requirements as paying fines, undergoing a criminal background check, learning English, pledging allegiance to the American government, accepting a probationary period and going to the back of the line behind those seeking to enter the country legally.

VIDOR—When it comes to college ministry, the SBTC has broken the traditional campus-based mold, opting instead to base its efforts in local churches that are strategically positioned near college and university campuses.

A key part of the strategy is an internship program that helps place college ministers in churches, paying a portion of their salaries for up to one year and providing them with resources and training. Last year, First Baptist Church in Vidor hired Tony Romero as director of collegiate ministry through this program. And the internship yielded eternal dividends.

Already a member of the congregation, Romero traveled to Grapevine for an initial one-day training session then began a revitalization of the church’s ministry to students at nearby Lamar University in Beaumont. Over the year of his internship, First Baptist’s college ministry increased from eight to 30 students, with marked spiritual growth alongside the numerical increase.

Though campus-based college ministries can be helpful, “the SBTC is committed to helping places like First Baptist Vidor be the spiritual presence on the college campus,” Romero, a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Havard School of Theological Studies in Houston, told the TEXAN. “… They want to see churches take it upon themselves to reach college students.”

The internship program began nine years ago and funds work at around five churches each year. In addition to providing interns with initial training, the SBTC provides ongoing ministry help throughout the program and holds interns accountable through regular progress reports.

“Tony has a heartbeat for [college ministry] and God is using him at Lamar to begin to do some things,” Lance Crowell, SBTC church ministries associate, said.

As director of collegiate ministries, Romero helped students engage Scripture by breaking them into small discussion groups during Bible studies. He also changed the format of prayer times, putting students in groups of two or three and having them pray for one another in personal, focused ways.

During the academic year, he visited the Lamar campus two days per week to promote upcoming activities and meet with students who attended Wednesday night Bible study. His evangelistic ministry utilized cards with pictures to help start conversations and encourage lost people to express their feelings about spiritual matters.

“A core group of students developed,” Romero said. “Now they know how to engage the [biblical] text. They know how to feed themselves from the Word, and they’re jumping at the bit, I believe, to be engaged in ministry 24/7.”

As the ministry grew, Romero realized that some students attending Bible studies might not be Christians. So he began a series of evangelistic lessons on the seven miraculous signs that Jesus performed in the Gospel of John. During each lesson, he asked the students what the passage taught about their needs and what it taught about Jesus.

A student named Matt attended every week and told Romero he wanted to believe in Jesus but couldn’t bring himself to step out in faith. Finally, after a lesson from 1 Peter about Christ’s death for sinners, Matt asked to talk with Romero. He confessed his fear that coming to Christ would require him to solve all of life’s most difficult problems on his own.

Romero told him, “I’m committed … to making sure that you never feel alone. And if there are any questions you have about what to do now, you can come to us. We’re committed to making sure that you understand where we’re going.”

At that, Matt said he was ready to move forward and committed his life to Jesus.

Romero said the SBTC helped make such ministry possible by sending him to seminars, helping him train other leaders, holding him accountable and allowing him to participate in webinars featuring respected college ministry experts.

“They’re not dedicated solely to the minister. They’re dedicated to the complete ministry,” he said of the convention.

In the end, the internship was so successful that First Baptist decided to keep Romero on staff and increase his salary after the SBTC stopped contributing to it.

“Because of the success of the ministry, the church is going to get behind this thing and own it,” Romero said.

For more information on the SBTC’s college minister intern program, email collegiate@sbtexas.com or contact Lance Crowell in the SBTC offices toll-free at 877-953-7282 (SBTC).

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Two reprimands have been issued to Richard Land by the trustee executive committee of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

The ERLC trustee executive committee also is terminating Land's weekly call-in radio show—the venue where Land made comments about the Trayvon Martin killing that ignited intense controversy, prompting the formation of a trustee ad hoc investigative committee.

The ERLC, led by Land since 1988, must “redouble our efforts … to heal re-opened wounds,” the executive committee said of Land's on-air comments about the intrusion of politics into the Trayvon Martin case and his references to President Obama and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson by name.

At the outset of its reprimands and broadcast termination, the trustee committee stated that Land's statements “were very hurtful and offensive to the Trayvon Martin family and to many in the African-American community, including hundreds of thousands of African-American Southern Baptists. Damage was done to the state of race relations in the Southern Baptist Convention.”

The two reprimands of Land by the ERLC trustee executive committee state:

“We reprimand Dr. Land for his hurtful, irresponsible, insensitive, and racially charged words on March 31, 2012 regarding the Trayvon Martin tragedy. It was appropriate for Dr. Land to issue the apology he made on May 9, 2012 and we are pleased he did so. We also convey our own deepest sympathies to the family of Trayvon Martin for the loss they have suffered. We, too, express our sorrow, regret, and apologies to them for Dr. Land's remarks. We are particularly disappointed in Dr. Land's words because they do not accurately reflect the body of his work over a long career at the ERLC toward racial reconciliation in the Southern Baptist Convention and American life. We must now redouble our efforts to regain lost ground, to heal re-opened wounds, and to realize the dream of a Southern Baptist Convention that is just as diverse as the population of our great Nation.

“We further reprimand Dr. Land for quoting material without giving attribution on the Richard Land Live! (RLL) radio show, thereby unwisely accepting practices that occur in the radio industry, and we acknowledge that instances of plagiarism occurred because of his carelessness and poor judgment. We examined Dr. Land's written work during the investigation, and we found no instances of plagiarism in any of Dr. Land's written work. As a Christian, a minister of the Gospel of our Lord, and as President of the ERLC, Dr. Land should have conformed to a higher standard. We expect all future work of the ERLC to be above reproach in that regard,” the trustee executive committee said regarding plagiarism allegations against Land over material he failed to attribute to a Washington Times columnist on the March 31 broadcast.

Regarding the call-in radio show, the ERLC trustee executive committee stated:

“… we have carefully considered the content and purpose of the Richard Land Live! broadcast. We find that they are not congruent with the mission of the ERLC. We also find that the controversy that erupted as a result of the March 31 broadcast, and related matters, requires the termination of that program. We hereby announce that the Richard Land Live! radio program will end as soon as possible within the bounds of our contracts with the Salem Radio Network.”

Land, in a statement issued to Baptist Press after the release of the reprimands and broadcast termination, stated:

“I have said on numerous occasions that I believe in trustee oversight and governance. I am under the authority of the trustees elected by the Southern Baptist Convention. This whole process was conducted in a Christian manner by Christian gentlemen.

“I look forward to working with them and their fellow trustees and the ERLC staff as we seek to continue to minister the Gospel of our Savior across our great land,” Land said.

In his May 9 statement, Land apologized “for the harm my words of March 31, 2012, have caused to specific individuals, the cause of racial reconciliation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.” The five-part, two-page apology followed a May 2 meeting when Land met with 11 other SBC leaders, including several prominent African American pastors. As a result of the meeting, which lasted nearly five hours, Land said, “I have come to understand in sharper relief how damaging my words were.”

For the Baptist Press story on Land's May 9 apology, which includes the full text of the apology, go to www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37795.

Among those in attendance May 9 were Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans; James Dixon Jr., president of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention and senior pastor of El-Bethel Baptist Church in Fort Washington, Md.; and K. Marshall Williams, chairman of the Southern Baptist African American Advisory Council and pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pa.

The ERLC trustee executive committee that issued the reprimands and broadcast termination is led by Richard D. Piles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Camden, Ark. Piles, on May 21, replaced Steve Faith as ERLC trustee chairman after Faith, a retired pastor and director of missions from New Albany, Ind., resigned citing a need to assist his local church that is currently without a pastor.

In addition to Piles, other members of the ERLC executive committee are Donald L. Mason, a Georgia layman; Stephen W. Long, a director of missions in Ohio; Christopher L. Slaughter, a West Virginia layman; and Stephen G. Veteto, a Colorado seminary educator. The committee includes the ERLC trustee officers and the chairmen of the trustees' three subcommittees.

On May 9, Faith followed Land's apology with a statement that the ad hoc investigative committee was working “with due diligence and will bring a thorough and complete report to the ERLC Executive Committee who will prayerfully consider the findings. The ERLC Executive Committee will bring a report to the full board of trustees and then release a public statement by June 1.

“It is important to understand that our Southern Baptist polity places Dr. Land under the authority of the ERLC trustees who are elected by and accountable directly to the Convention,” Faith said. “The trustees are aware of their responsibility to the Convention and to the watching world.”

Additional Baptist Press reports on the controversy over Land's comments can be accessed at www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37804; www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37620; and www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37619.

A year ago, Central Baptist Church in Hermleigh—100 miles southeast of Lubbock—no longer needed all 144 seats in their auditorium. Only a dozen or so faithful members were coming each Sunday, so a third of the space had been taken over for storage.

Then a steady stream of children and teenagers began accepting invitations from friends to attend a discipleship program on Wednesday nights, and their parents took notice. Young adults who had given up on church began returning and inviting other families.

With 20 baptisms since Thanksgiving and a crowd that surpassed 130 in late May, now the congregation needs every available seat.

“Our church is experiencing revival,” said Pastor T.J. Harkness. “Every single day I get a phone call of a new story of God working with these young adults.”

“We were such a small church, but we are growing so rapidly,” shared Alan Celoria, a retired music evangelist who works with the youth along with his wife, Jan. They were used to teaching a few teenagers in Sunday School. Now there are over 25 attending on Sunday mornings and around 50 on Wednesday nights.

“All of a sudden, God is doing big things in a small place,” he told the TEXAN.

In the remote West Texas town of around 400 people, Harkness set forth a big challenge, Celoria recounted. “God gave him a vision that we were going to see the church packed.”

Church members were enlisted to help with a growing youth ministry and provide transportation home for those who visited. Couples took turns cooking breakfast for students on Sunday morning.

“The approach was to do everything we possibly could to bring these kids in no matter what their motivation so that we could feed them the Word of God,” Harkness said.

Avenue D Baptist Church in Snyder offered the Hermleigh church a 15-passenger bus to transport more children and youth. Young adults began visiting the church as they saw changing habits of their children.

“They started going on Wednesdays and then on Sunday mornings and started asking if we’d go,” recalled Beatrice Thompson.

“Some kids you have to force to go to church, but I started noticing they’d want to get up and go on Sunday mornings,” she added.

“They would come home and tell us what they learned and then we were learning from it,” Beatrice said. That caught her by surprise. “I told my husband we ought to go and check it out.” Once they went, they were hooked, she recalled. “You can tell that they care about God by the way they treat you.”

As an interracial couple, the Thompsons felt uncomfortable with the reception they received while visiting other churches. “Here they don’t look at you that way,” she stated. “They see you as a person. That’s when you know these are people who are really into God.”

The pastor welcomed Rodney and Beatrice when they walked forward at a worship service to ask how to join the church and in the process realized they first needed salvation.

Celoria recalled how the Thompsons’ children began noticing a difference in their parents following their decisions to follow Christ. “Their three older children came to us and said something has happened to our family and we want that too.”

After the 11-year-old publicly professed her faith in Christ, two siblings followed and Beatrice quizzed them to make sure their decisions were sincere. “Pastor T.J. had a real good sermon on things that made sense to them and I could tell they were paying attention. They felt it in their hearts and I knew it was the real thing,” she added.

“The next Sunday we all got baptized—the whole family,” Beatrice shared, “except my baby,” she said, referring to their 3-year-old. “Her time will come.”

Thirteen-year-old Tommy Haynes showed such enthusiasm for the Team Kids program that it made his mother curious. “He had never been a church-goer and so I was really shocked,” shared Misty Haynes. “I said, ‘Tommy, if you love it so much, I might give it a try.’”

Through the invitation of their friends, Tommy and his brothers began attending and soon their mother followed. “I just absolutely loved it the first time. I felt so welcome and so at home.”

When the pastor stopped by their home to talk with Tommy and his brother Dylan about their decision to become Christians, Misty began asking questions to gain assurance of her own salvation years earlier.

“In talking to her,” Harkness said, “Toby realized he hadn’t made a decision at all so I explained the gospel to both of them.”

“I had no clue that my husband didn’t feel he was baptized for the right reason when he was younger,” Misty said. “He was ready to take his own step and do it for the right reason,” she added, recalling her husband’s profession of faith that night in their home. Haynes and the two sons were baptized April 29.

“What’s been going on in that church has been really amazing,” shared Michael Hildebrand. He and his wife, Tiffany, left a few years ago. “Some things happened that I didn’t agree with at the time. I didn’t trust God that his work was going on, but we were drawn back to the church by listening to what God was telling us,” he said.

Now he sees that the seeds for growth had been sown for years. “The youth group is growing outrageously and we’re getting more and more adults. They’re being drawn in by the kids,” he explained.

More than 150 people attended the May 26 service followed by lunch at the community center to share elements of Bible drill, Scripture memory and character study taught throughout the year on Wednesday nights. Half of the parents of the teenagers had never attended the church.

“We’re reaching people,” Celoria said. “The Word of God is taking hold so that when they share with their parents what’s going on in their lives, the parents come out of curiosity as the Holy Spirit draws them.” Celoria said. “Men are being saved and baptized. Entire families are getting reunited. It’s amazing.”

Long-time members have made good on their promise to follow the direction Harkness believes God is leading, he added, embracing an appeal to repair and renovate church facilities.

“They started seeing the growth with a younger generation of youth starving for God’s Word and their parents following and being baptized and put to work almost immediately,” Harkness said.

In fewer than 45 days, over $30,000 was given to more than cover the cost of materials and labor on the to-do list compiled by a church committee. “It’s just absolutely amazing to see this, especially as a young pastor serving in my first church,” Harkness said. “I’m absolutely humbled God chose me to be a part of this growth.”

He remembers the lessons he learned in patiently waiting on God while attending Jacksonville College, confident that God would bless his ministry even when that took him to a small, rural church with only a few dozen members when he arrived.

Even after the special service in May that attracted a record-breaking crowd, attendance held steady the next week with 96 people in worship and 76 in Sunday School.

Talking recently with her husband about the change in their lives, Beatrice Thompson said, “I can’t believe we’ve lived this long not knowing how good life is with God in your life, knowing you’re doing work now that is so much different, so much more. We didn’t realize how good it feels.”

DALLAS—One night six years ago, somewhere between Fort Worth and Dallas, Hal Benard Carouthers was hunkered down on all fours in the dirt behind orange barricade barrels and heavy equipment at a freeway road construction site, praying to God for a rescue. The dizzying blur of cars and trucks sped past, each emitting a loud “whoosh” and a blast of night air.

Still revving from a cocaine binge and unable to come down, he was insane, he recalled. He’s convinced of it. Inanimate objects were doing strange things back in Fort Worth, before he’d started his trek down the side of the freeway toward Dallas. The television was talking back to him.

He had tried to get sober by drinking himself down.

“But God wouldn’t let me fall asleep,” Carouthers said.

Somewhere along the asphalt, he broke, waving the white flag to the God who had been reminding him of a commitment he’d made as a teenager.

He’s been sober ever since that night.

He has the peace that comes with assurance, and is working out his salvation with gratitude, humility and submission.

Add to that a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies from Criswell College. He walked last month, and plans to enter a master’s degree program there this fall.

That night on the freeway is sketchy in his mind. With the kindness of strangers at the Fort Worth bus station—he doesn’t know how he got there—he ended up in Dallas at a shelter, then at Parkland Hospital, then to the familiar confines of the Union Gospel Mission.

Weeks went by with no relapses. Weeks turned to months. Carouthers was again attending the Bible studies he had attended before at places like Union Gospel and Dallas Life Foundation, where he participated in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. He began to own the faith he had embraced as a teenager, that moment at age 16 when he said the gospel sunk in and he said yes to Jesus.

“I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face,” Carouthers recounted from that moment in the early 1970s. But that joy would later give way to drugs and alcohol, times of sensing the pull of God, and then relapses into addiction. He enlisted in the Army at age 17, also serving stints in the Navy and Air Force. He would bounce between the civilian world and the military; his time as a civilian was wrought with missteps—a mixture of good paying jobs (he graduated from several trade schools) and then months of addiction and homelessness.

•••

Bill Thompson, director of the Union Gospel Mission, and Bobby Worthington, then the director of the AA and NA programs at Dallas Life Foundation, knew Carouthers. He’d been around, but this time was different.   

“Hal came to Dallas Life twice, I think, in the 90s and then later. He was in our Christ-centered 12-step program. He was there recovering from that and you know, the Lord did a work in his life,” Worthington recalled.

“The thing to remember,” Worthington added, “is that God can move in the hearts of the homeless and they be saved.” Sometimes, the changes are radical.

Darren Larkins, who was converted at Dallas Life’s inner-city chapel, is in the master’s program at Criswell also.

“You don’t get to see that all the time but God does allow you to see it some of the time,” Worthington said.

Years ago as a Criswell College student himself, God placed the homeless of east Dallas on Worthington’s heart, he said. Now an adjunct professor of evangelism at the school and director of its urban missions and encounter missions programs, Worthington continues to see the homeless as a mission field.

Worthington keeps in touch with Carouthers, encouraged him to enter the master’s program in the fall and is scheduled to serve on Carouthers’ ordination council this summer.

“As a professor you are mentoring students in the classroom and outside of the classroom, and you get these rewards,” Worthington said. “To see him go through the struggles and the change that God has brought in his life, it just means a lot to me. It means a lot to me to be able to go to his ordination service. That’s just the spirit of God working in his life.”

The decision to go to Criswell was slow coming.

“One of the chaplains told me, ‘You need to get started on what God has for you to do because you may not be able to even finish it.’ Dr. Bill Thompson told me, ‘You are getting older and you will want to be able to minister effectively.’”

Thompson was the one who pushed for Carouthers to enter Criswell College. Once there, Carothers was pleasantly surprised, he said, to see a familiar face in Worthington teaching there.

“I was going to serve God no matter what,” Carouthers said. “Criswell had been burning in my mind and for the first time in my life I knew that was where God would have me be. Dr. Worthington encouraged me and made himself available to me, as did several other of the professors.”

Mentors such as Worthington, James Bryant, Daniel Streett and David Brooks challenged him, cheered him on, made sure he had what he needed.

“How you doin’, Hal?” Brooks would ask. “You need anything?”

“Hanging in there,” he’d respond.

“Well, you are hanging well,” Brooks would quip.

“Those professors kept me going,” Carouthers recounted.

It was during Streett’s Greek classes—taught by a language immersion method—that Carouthers recalled hitting an academic wall. Streett and Brooks have Ivy League degrees. Carouthers, with some community college under his belt, was feeling overwhelmed, he said.

“I realized the Holy Spirit was developing my inner man to do those things that he would have me to do. When things got difficult in Greek, for instance, and I got to a point where it was really heavy on me and I felt like I couldn’t go any further, I knew to lean on the Holy Spirit and not on me. I was obedient to continue studying until I found myself making really good grades because I kept my mind on Christ and not on what I could do. I give credit to the Holy Spirit.”

Through it all, Carouthers was being immersed in Scripture and the way of Christ. Two years ago he began teaching a men’s Sunday School class at the Bible church that meets at Union Gospel. Carouthers has also preached there.

With 140 additional beds planned at the mission, Carouthers is hoping to be added as a paid chaplain. In the meantime, he will continue his theological education at Criswell.

Carouthers eventually wishes to pastor a church, he said.

“It’s because of God that I graduated, and he did that for his purposes and his kingdom. And I don’t think he’s through. I have high expectations of being used. But if he didn’t do anything else for me, I’m happy and content.”